Value of $100 in 1995, adjusted to 2026

What happened to prices between 1995 and 2026

Between 1995 and 2026, the Consumer Price Index went from 152.4 to 332.243. Cumulatively, prices increased 118.0%, which works out to an average of 2.55% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1995 bought what $0.46 buys in 2026: the 1995 dollar lost 54.1% of its purchasing power over these 31 years.

In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package, controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm part of 1995’s economic story.

More about inflation in 1995 →

The destination year: 2026

In 2026, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1995 had the buying power of $218; the year's average CPI of 332.243 is the level behind every 2026 figure on this page.